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LA CROSSE – Spencer junior Noah Zastrow earned the first medal among the local athletes at the 2016 WIAA State Track & Field Championships at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse on Friday.
Zastrow, who placed third in the Division 3 boys pole vault the past two years at the state meet, did one better on Friday, finishing second to earn a silver medal with a vault of 14 feet, 6 inches.
A number of other local athletes ran in preliminary races on Friday. Some moved on to Saturday’s finals and a number of others had close calls but failed to qualify.
All three of Columbus Catholic’s entries will compete in finals on Saturday.
Senior Alexandra Hutchison, the defending Division 3 state champion in both the girls 100 and 200 meters, will get a chance to add to her medal count at the state meet on Saturday as she moved on in each event.
Hutchison will be going for her third-straight D-3 200-meter title after earning the top qualifying spot in the event with a time of 25.17 seconds. She qualified ninth in the 100 in 13.67 seconds.
The Columbus boys 800 relay team of Elijah Welsh, Leo Pittsley, David Nielsen and Farid Torbey also will run in Saturday’s finals after earning the 10th and last spot in the finals with a time of 1:35.30.
Marshfield senior Calden Wojt ran in three events on Friday and qualified for the finals in one.
Wojt will move on in the Division 1 boys 200 meters as he qualified fourth in 22.24 seconds. Wojt was 12th in the 400 prelims in 49.92 seconds, missing out on the final qualifying spot by just 0.11 seconds, and was 21st in the 100 in 11.58 seconds.
Auburndale senior Sylviann Momont was busy on Friday, competing in the Division 3 girls long jump and running prelims in the 100 and 300 hurdles.
Momont qualified for Saturday’s finals in the 100 hurdles, taking eighth in 16.95 seconds, but failed to move on in the 300 hurdles as she was 14th in 49.62. Momont did not medal in the long jump, taking 10th with a leap of 16 feet, 10¼ inches. She will compete in the triple jump on Saturday.
Also moving on for the Auburndale girls is Rachel Gronemeyer, who was eighth in the 400 preliminaries with a time of 1:01.25. Teammate Isabella Jewell, a freshman, just missed out on a spot in the finals by taking 11th in 1:03.73, a little less than a second out of 10th.
Auburndale’s lone boy state qualifier, sophomore Carvey Empey, did not reach the finals in the D-3 400 as he finished 16th and last in qualifying with a time of 53.40.
Spencer’s Sabrina Vircks compete in the Division 3 girls high jump and tied for 11th with a jump of 4-10. The Rockets’ 1,600 relay team of Vircks, Kaily Northup, Nadia King and Liz Endreas ended up 11th in qualifying with a time of 4:16.17, missing out on a spot in the finals by about one-half of a second.
King, Lauren Faber, Northup and McKenna Brecht took 12th in the 400 relay with a time of 52.30 seconds and failed to make it to the finals.
In addition to those competing in finals in the running events Saturday will be Spencer’s Johanna Ellefson in the D-3 girls pole vault, the Rockets’ Max Johnson in the D-3 boys shot put, and Auburndale’s Kali Karl in the D-3 girls 800.